Brendan Monaghan: Can Dennis Richardson end the Republican Party's legacy of futility?

There was a sense of optimism in gatherings across Oregon last week, the kind most closely associated with Opening Day in the sports world. It is then that every team, even yours, is in first place.

If Oregon politics were its own sport, the state’s Republicans would be characterized as cursed -- no statewide victories of any kind since 2002 and no elected governors since 1982. The groups of partisans in Central Point, Eugene, Bend, and Portland were hopeful that Rep. Dennis Richardson, R-Central Point, could finally reverse this curse and lead them out of their 30 years of exile.

Unlike other curses, there doesn’t seem to be a single event or circumstance (the sale of a superstar to a rival club or the exclusion of a billy goat from the team’s stadium) that can explain the Republicans’ run of rotten luck. The party has run all manner of candidates - moderates and conservatives, insiders and novices, foes, foils, and Bill Sizemore - everyone except winners. In trying something different each time, Republicans have failed to develop, much less maintain, a brand for the state party.

Fundraising woes and fiscal crises have made this problem worse. So has a disturbing recent propensity not to nominate candidates for treasurer or attorney general. As a result, Oregon Republicans have allowed the other side (or worse, Republicans nationally) to define them, a mortal sin in politics.

In spite of all the favorable buzz that Richardson’s announcement created, the question as to whether or not John Kitzhaber deserves an unprecedented fourth term as governor remains a fair one. Why is the answer already presumed to be “yes?” His agenda stalled considerably, ironically enough, in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. His first act as commander in chief of education in Oregon was to hire a less-than-attentive general, Rudy Crew. The economy continues to sputter, with 11 counties still facing double-digit unemployment and timber-rich counties forbidden from using the very resources that could bail out their essential services. While liberal groups jumped on Richardson’s declaration, quick to defend Kitzhaber’s record, most governors in a similar position, it would seem, would just as soon change the subject.

Richardson has the advantage of showing up in the empty void that has characterized the Oregon Republican Party, and now has the opportunity to fill it. While it is often said that nobody reads the platform of either party, Richardson may be the best articulation of his party’s principles since the streak began. With this, he can take the Republican message to groups and locales that haven’t heard it, face to face, in a credible fashion. The party has all but written off Multnomah County in general, and Portland in particular, preferring Slade Gorton’s strategy of driving up the vote in red counties. They have misread or underestimated the importance of connecting the message to women and minorities. Candidates and party representatives have talked at or about Millennials, not to or with us.

Any Republican would have a tall order to fill in order to break the nation’s second-longest gubernatorial losing streak (thanks, Washington Republicans!). For starters, a more confident and smarter discussion of social issues is needed, one that assures Oregonians that what they decide on abortion and marriage will be respected. Richardson’s candidacy also promises to raise the level of discourse, particularly on Debate Night. Oregonians were promised as much three years ago, and Kitzhaber openly looked forward to debating Republican hopeful Allen Alley. His three prior opponents couldn’t or didn’t discuss the specifics of their respective plans, nor break away from sound bites and talking points.

It’s good for Richardson that he’s starting now so that he can grow accustomed to long days campaigning and not much sleep. Urban or rural, red or blue, the same set of economic and fiscal problems are keeping all Oregonians up at night.

Brendan Monaghan, save for a four-year stint studying political
science at Ohio State University, is a lifelong Oregonian. His columns
appear on alternate Thursdays.